1. BMJ VOLUME 326 1 FEBRUARY 2003 ABC of learning and teaching in medicine Curriculum design

2. What is Curriculum?  َ All the planned learning experiences of a school or educational institution

3. The curriculum exists at three levels:

4.  In contemporary medical education it is argued that the curriculum should achieve a “symbiosis” with the health services and communities in which the students will serve.  The values that underlie the curriculum should enhance health service provision.  The curriculum must be responsive to changing values and expectations in education if it is to remain useful.

5. “Symbiosis” necessary for a curriculum:

6. A curriculum has at least four important elements: content; teaching and learning strategies; assessment processes; and evaluation processes The process of defining and organising these elements into a logical pattern is known as curriculum design

7.  There are two main types: prescriptive models, which  indicate what curriculum designers should do; and descriptive  models, which purport to describe what curriculum designers actually do.

9. Prescriptive models  Prescriptive models are concerned with the ends rather than the means of a curriculum.

10. “objectives model,” arose from the initial work of Ralph Tyler in 1949. According to this model, four important questions are used in curriculum design :

12. The objective model has attracted some criticism:  It is difficult and time consuming to construct behavioural objectives  Restricts the curriculum to a narrow range of student skills and knowledge  Higher order thinking, problem solving and process for acquiring values may be excluded.  Any way,The importance of being clear about the purpose of the curriculum is well accepted.

13. Another prescriptive model of curriculum design has emerged: “Outcomes based education”

15. Descriptive models  Malcolm Skilbeck, which emphasises the importance of situation or context in curriculum design.  curriculum designers thoroughly and systematically analyse the situation in which they work for its effect on what they do in the curriculum.